Hall of Fame coach Pete Carrill, who brought notoriety to the “Princeton offense” during his 30-year tenure with the Tigers, died Monday morning at the age of 92.
“Please respect our privacy at this time as we process the loss and make necessary arrangements.
Using a purposeful, time-wasting offense that relied on backdoor cuts and accurate passing, Carrill led Princeton to 13 regular-season titles in the Ivy League when the conference had no postseason tournaments. rice field. Princeton won the NIT in 1975, beating Providence 80-69 at Madison Square Garden.
But on a memorable March night for the Tigers, who secured 11 NCAA Tournament berths under Carril, the frenzied coach bounced up and down the sidelines as Princeton tried to outmaneuver a superior opponent. It was characterized by turning. An indelible mark on the history of college basketball.
“Anyone can coach basketball. I can say it now. It’s not that hard to know about pick-and-rolls, back-picks, and shuffle-cuts. I mean, it’s not that hard. He’s retired.” “But the hard part is figuring out how to develop something, figuring out how a team plays, and that’s under the thinking header.”
That logic was exhibited in Providence, Rhode Island in 1989. The 16th-seeded Carrill’s Tigers dominated the No. 1 Georgetown Hoyas with his 50-49 lead to the attention of the tournament.
In the press conference leading up to the game, a very down-to-earth Caryl who wasn’t shy about making the crowd laugh, said. It’s only 450 million to 1 to beat it.”
ESPN analyst Dick Vitale agreed with his best friend Caryl. At the Bristol, Connecticut, studio before the game, Vitale promised: Not far from here to Providence. I’m going to be their ball boy at their next game, and I’m going to change into my Princeton cheerleading uniform and lead all the cheers.
As far-fetched as it was, the Tigers actually led 29-21 in the half and used their patient offense to frustrate a star-packed Hoyas team featuring Alonzo Mourning and coached by John Thompson. . Georgetown’s rebounding led to his 13 in the morning, despite discord at nearly every position, not to mention his 32-13 advantage, with Carrill huffing and puffing off the bench. While repeating, the Tigers fought until the end.
“They lulled us to sleep with the backdoor cut and the shot clock down,” Morning said after the game. “As soon as we failed defensively, they took advantage of it.”
A few more close calls followed at tournaments in New Jersey schools known for producing Rhodes Scholars and Pulitzer Prize winners more than their athletic performance. In 1990, as the 13th seed against No. 4 Arkansas, the Razorbacks defeated Carrills his Tigers 68-64.
A combined 10-point loss followed to Villanova and Syracuse as the Tigers continued to dominate the Ivy League and fell short in the NCAA Tournament. However, Caryl’s program finally broke in 1996 with his game Madness in March.
After defeating Penn 63-56 in overtime to win the title for Ivy in a one-game tiebreaker, Carril told the team he intended to resign after the NCAA Tournament. In fact, after his victory over the Quakers, he wrote on a whiteboard in his locker room:
A week later, against defending national champions UCLA, Princeton, once again the No. 13 seed, upset the No. 4-seeded Bruins 43-41 in Indianapolis.
“We beat the giants,” Caryl said in a post-match interview afterwards, laughing out loud.
Former UCLA coach Steve Rabin, who was an assistant to the staff in 1996, agreed. “It was one of his most memorable games in NCAA history,” he said.
Indeed, a hard-fought push-and-pull of the NCAA Tournament proved the perfect stage for a bench-weary Carril. It truly defines the essence of March Madness.
Carrill, who coached Lehi for one season, finished his college career with 525 wins and 273 wins, including 514 at Princeton. In his 1998, the year after his victory over the Bruins, he was inducted into the National College Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
During Naismith’s Hall of Fame induction speech in Springfield, Massachusetts, Caryl said, “Just saying no one starts out wanting to be a Hall of Fame coach, or a Hall of Fame doctor, or anything. “Nobody starts out like that. There are so many forces at work and I don’t know where they end up or why they happen.”
“Princeton has always been half-hearted at basketball. But we are now a national school when it comes to basketball. And I don’t think anything will happen to change that.”
Carril began his career as an NBA assistant coach, serving three different stints with the Sacramento Kings before retiring in 2011.
